1630s, "silken stuff; striped silk taffeta" (tabbies was a general name for watered silk), from French tabis "a rich, watered silk" (originally striped), earlier atabis (14c.), via Mediterranean languages from Arabic 'attabi, from 'Attabiyah, a neighborhood of Baghdad where such cloth was made. The place is said to be named for prince 'Attab of the Omayyad dynasty.
As an adjective from 1630s, "made of tabby;" by 1660s as "resembling tabby," hence tabby cat, one with a striped coat, attested from 1690s. The shortened form tabby for the cat is attested by 1774. "The wild original of the domestic cat is always of such coloration" [Century Dictionary].
In the shifted sense of "female cat" (1826) it was alliteratively paired with (and distinguished from) Tom (see tomcat). The use also might have been suggested by Tabby, a pet form of the fem. proper name Tabitha, which also was late 18c. slang for "spiteful spinster, difficult old woman" (as in Tabbyhood "condition of being an old maid," 1793).
TABBY, an old maid, either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name, or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats ; to drive Tab, to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family. [Grose, "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1785]
In World War I military slang and after in U.K. a Tabby could mean "a pretty girl."
also tabouli, tabbouleh, Middle Eastern vegetable salad, 1955, from Arabic tabbula.
in pathology, "progressive emaciation," 1650s, medical Latin, from Latin tabes "a melting, wasting away, decay, putrefaction," from tabere "to melt, rot away, decay, be consumed" (according to Watkins, from PIE root *tā- "to melt, dissolve" (see thaw (v.)).
Related: Tabefaction (17c.) from earlier tabefy "to rot, putrefy" (Chauliac, early 15c.); also tabefacte (adj.) "rotted, putrefied." Tabescent, tabid. tabific, tabetic seem to be 19c. dictionary words.
mid-13c., "portable sanctuary carried by the Israelites in the wilderness," from Old French tabernacle "the Jewish Tabernacle; tent, canopy; tomb, monument" (12c.), from Latin tabernaculum "tent," especially "a tent of an augur" (for taking observations), diminutive of taberna "hut, cabin, booth" (see tavern).
The sense of the word in English shifted by late 14c. to "the Temple in Jerusalem" (which continued the function of the tabernacle). Also in Biblical language, "the body as the temporary abode of the soul" (late 14c.). By late 15c. as a name for a receptacle for the eucharist.
The sense of "house of worship" (generally a temporary one or somehow otherwise distinguished from a church) is by 1690s; especially in reference to places of worship for Nonconformists (1768).
The Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles (mid-October) was observed as a thanksgiving for harvest. This was rendered in English c. 1400 as Feste of Logges ("lodges"). Related: Tabernacular. A late 15c. adjective was tabernaculid "covered with a canopy."
fem. proper name, from Late Latin, from Greek Tabitha, from Aramaic (Semitic) tabhyetha, emphatic of tabhya "gazelle," which is related to Hebrew tzebhi (fem. tzebhiyyah), Arabic zaby.
Middle English, from Old French table, tabel "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and also a survival of late Old English tabele "flat and relatively thin surface of some hard material," especially "writing tablet (of slabs of wood, etc.,), gaming table," also "top of an altar, part of a pavement;" in late Old English "tablet intended for an inscription." The Old English word is from Germanic *tabal (source also of Dutch tafel, Danish tavle, Old High German zabel "board, plank," German Tafel).
Both the French and Germanic words are from Latin tabula "a board, plank; writing table; list, schedule; picture, painted panel," originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for games (source also of Spanish tabla, Italian tavola), a word of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the board."
The sense of "piece of furniture consisting of a flat top on legs" is by c. 1300. The usual Latin word for this was mensa (see mensa); Old English writers used bord (see board (n.1)).
Especially the table at which people eat, hence "food placed upon a table" (c. 1400 in English). The meaning "columnar arrangement of words, numbers or other figures on a tabular surface for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (as in table of contents, which is from mid-15c.).
The figurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon (in Middle English the game was called tables). Table talk "familiar conversation around a table" is attested from 1560s, translating Latin colloquia mensalis. Table manners is from 1824. Table-hopping is recorded by 1943. For under the table see under (prep.). Table-wine, suitable for drinking at a meal, is by 1670s. Table tennis "ping-pong" is recorded from 1887. Table-rapping in spiritualism, supposedly an effect of supernatural powers, is from 1853.
"backgammon," late 13c., plural of table (n.). Plural in reference to the folding halves of the board.
mid-15c., tablen, "enter (someone's name) into a list," thus, "appoint to a duty;" also "provide with food," from various senses in table (n.).
In a parliamentary sense, 1718, originally "to lay on the (Speaker's) table for discussion;" the Speaker's table (attested by 1670s) of the House of Commons being where motions are received. But in U.S. political jargon it has chiefly the sense of "postpone indefinitely" (1866) via notion of "lay aside for future consideration." Related: Tabled; tabling.
pair of drums used in northern Indian music, 1865, from Hindi, from Arabic tabl "a drum played with the hand."
type of musical notation for lute or stringed instrument, 1570s, from French tablature (1550s), from Italian tavolatura (also Medieval Latin tabulatura), from Late Latin tabulare, from Latin tabula "table, list, schedule" (see table (n.)). "It differed from the more general staff-notation in that it aimed to express not so much the pitch of the notes intended as the mechanical process by which on the particular instrument those tones were to be produced" [Century Dictionary].
